To sleep, perchance to dream.
FOMO is the fear of missing out. FOMOOS is the fear of missing out on sleep! Ok, I made it up. But FOMOOS is what I have. FOMO is a scourge that has afflicted much of my generation and certainly the next generation. When photos and recaps of activities are splashed all over social media at every minute of every day, everyone knows what everyone else is doing all the time. And we get envious of other people having fun all the time (or at least looking like it on social media) and leaving us out. My hubs has FOMO real bad. If you invite him out to dinner or after work drinks or a party or a weekend getaway, he’s probably going to go no matter how jam packed his schedule is. I, on the other hand, am increasingly concerned about how my overpacked schedule is affecting how much sleep I’m able to get. I mused here about how busy we have all become and how much we focus on filling up every minute of every day. One consequence of that way of living is that I start to worry way in advance about how tired I know I’ll be, and it stresses me out. Perhaps this emphasis on sleep is because I’m getting older, or perhaps it’s because I’ve started to focus on living purposefully and with intention, or perhaps it just because I’m hitting my lack of sleep limit?
One thing I do know is that we need sleep! And FOMOOS is a real thing, not just about being a bit lazy. I recently listened to an amazing TED Radio Hour episode that focused on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, one of which is sleep. You know I love TED Radio Hour – I shared here some of my favorite podcast stations and this one one of them. This episode in particular was illuminating. I’ve never thought much about why we need sleep or what sleep does for our bodies, our psyche, our emotions. I’ve spent a LOT of time trying to figure out to how operate on less sleep. For years I have made a New Year’s resolution to train myself to rely on less sleep. I’m not sure that’s possible and I’m quite sure it’s not healthy. I’ve never been someone who needs a huge amount of sleep – never slept in until noon or absolutely panicked if I couldn’t get a full 8 hours a night. But I have realized that I cannot fully function or be the best version of myself on only 4-5 hours a night, and I’m not alone.
Sleep is essential. We cannot exist without it, and academics have been puzzled for centuries as to why we sleep. Despite the wondrous advances in science and medicine, scientists aren’t 100% sure why sleep is essential or what exactly happens to our bodies when we sleep. There are a number of different theories for what sleep does for us, and it’s a source of contention in the scientific community, but all agree on one thing: that it is a necessity. Some people believe that while we sleep the cells in our brain are rejuvenating; others believe that sleep is the time during which our brains clear out the waste and toxins that they contain. Some scientists argue that sleep allows the brain to sift through all of the materials from the day in order to store the important information to memory, converting short term memories to long term memories. Yet others believe that our brains are still thinking while we sleep! The brain continues to replay information, process it and learn while we are getting those much needed zzz’s. Still others believe that sleep replenishes the body’s energy supplies that are expended during the day, and that our muscle tissues repair themselves while we are sleeping.
Any and all of these functions are vital, no matter which you believe, and it’s alarming that we as a society are trying to get less and less sleep. There is much debate about how much sleep is enough, how much is too much – we haven’t quite figured out the Goldilocks ‘just right’ amount of sleep, and it probably varies from person to person. One thing for sure, however, is that we need it. And so allowing yourself to get some good quality sleep, making it a priority in the competing demands on our lives, is extremely important. It could be that I am simply justifying my changing habits, but I’m feeling okay these days when my FOMO sometimes succumbs to my FOMOOS and some good quality R+R wins out over yet another task on the to-do list or social outing.
BY Jackie
LOCATION San Francisco, California
